The present invention relates generally to a tie-down anchor for use in securing cargo to a track in an air pallet, the tie-down anchor having two fixed studs and one movable spring-loaded stud, the movable spring-loaded stud being used to lock the tie-down anchor onto the track, and more particularly to a cover for use with such an anchor for preventing unauthorized access to the spring-loaded stud when the anchor is locked into the track of an air pallet in order to unlock the anchor from the track.
When small packaged goods are shipped from one location, such as the Far East, to another location, such as the United States, the goods are often piled onto an air pallet, covered with a net and then tied down to the air pallet using cables and tie-down anchors. The tie-down anchors are slidably mounted in a channel in a locking track on the periphery of the air pallet and serve to hold the cables in place over the net. In one well known locking track, the channel has spaced upper flanges shaped to define a series of enlarged spaced apart circular openings separated by relatively narrower track slot segments.
One known type of tie-down anchor often used with the above described locking track includes a main body portion having an opening through which a cable or rope or ring may be inserted, a pair of fixed locking studs and one movable spring-loaded locking stud. When the anchor is locked in place on the locking track, the spring-loaded locking stud sits in one of the enlarged circular openings in the channel and the two fixed studs are underneath a pair of slot segments. The spring-loaded stud must be lifted up above the enlarged circular opening in which it is seated in order to slidably move the anchor along the channel to another location or to remove the tie-down anchor from the locking track.
The problem with these tie-down anchors is that while the goods are in route, an unauthorized person can lift up the spring loaded locking stud from the enlarged circular opening in which it is seated, slide the tie-down anchor down the channel to another location where the cable is not as tight, lift up the net at that location, remove one or more of the packaged goods and then move the tie-down anchor back to where the cable is once again tightly in place over the goods.